Apple Gearing Up For A MacBook Pro Refresh

Strict orders from Apple to dealers, delayed shipping times, mysterious new sections in an online shop and insider reports all point to a MacBook Pro refresh from Apple this week which could include Intel’s superfast Light Peak technology.

Over the weekend it emerged that Apple had given dealers strict orders not to open sealed pallet shipments which will be arriving in stores from today. This was then followed by shipping times for US online orders of the laptops going from 24-hours to between three and five days. This, according to Apple Insider is only reserved for imminent product releases. Over at the Best Buy website meanwhile, a placeholder Stock Keeping Unit (SKU) for new Apple branded laptops were discovered. Five models were listed on the site’s Laptop Configuration tool ranging in price from $1,199 to $2,499.CNET is also reporting that Intel’s Light Peak technology may be part of this refresh, and if not it will be introduced very soon by Apple. Light Peak promises to revolutionise the speeds at which computers can transfer data and with speeds of up to 10Gbps it promises to replace USB, DisplayPort and HDMI in one swoop. The first iteration will be based on copper rather than light-based technologies but Intel has said this will not affect the speed.

Other than the possibility of Light Peak, not much is known about the MacBook Pro upgrade. It is however expected that Apple will include Intel’s Sandy Bridge as part of the new laptop range. An announcement is expected this week on the refresh and we’ll bring you all the details when we get them.